Porsche halts GT3 deliveries over fire issues

Porsche has temporarily stopped deliveries of its new 911 GT3 model, after reports of customers' cars being destroyed by fire.

So far, there have been two cases in Europe of the high-performance coupe being completely gutted by spontaneous combustion, and the company is investigating why before allowing anyone else to get behind the wheel.

"For those customers that haven't yet had their cars, it's only right and proper that we investigate this situation in a thorough way," a Porsche spokesman told The Telegraph.

The German marque expects to conclude examinations on the fire-damaged cars by the end of the week, the Reuters news agency reported.

So far this year 322 customers have taken delivery of the £100,000 car worldwide. Porsche currently feels there is no need to tell existing owners to stop driving their cars.

Launched last year to media acclaim, the GT3 is a track-focussed version of the iconic 911 sports car. Now in its third generation, it is more technically advanced than ever before, featuring active rear-wheel steering, and a naturally aspirated 3.6-litre engine developing 475bhp.

Porsche isn't the only luxury sports car manufacturer to suffer from fire issues in recent times. The launch of the highly acclaimed Ferrari 458 Italia in 2010 was marred by a number of customer cars being completely destroyed by fire. The Italian manufacturer eventually traced the problem back to the glue used in the rear wheel-arch liner, which was prone to combusting if the car had been driven for a long time at high speeds and in hot conditions.

Tesla's Model S electric car was also the subject of scrutiny by US authorities after a number of high-profile incidents of cars catching fire. The cause was later revealed to be ruptures in the battery packs caused by collisions.

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